David Condon Finds

Buying a gift always sounds simple… until you actually have to do it. You end up wandering around a strange town, half-looking into shop windows, hoping something jumps out at you. Most of the time, it doesn’t. And before you know it, you’re either rushing a decision or settling for something safe that doesn’t really mean much. Buying gifts or souvenirs in any town is normally the last thing you think about, but that’s exactly why it helps to have a rough idea beforehand. It takes the pressure off and lets you actually enjoy your time in Tralee instead of scrambling at the last minute.

Working Out Prices for Your Craft Products Pricing your work is one of the hardest parts of running any craft business. It’s not just numbers. It’s confidence, experience, and sometimes a bit of trial and error. I’ve learned that the hard way, across two different businesses.  My First Mistake: Undervaluing My Work When I was working as a carpenter, I never really valued my time properly. Wages on site were rising steadily, but I never adjusted my own rates to match. I kept charging what I had always charged, partly out of habit and partly out of fear of losing work. If a builder asked for a slightly better price, I’d usually shave something off. Even when I was probably already cheaper than everyone else. I wasn’t a ruthless businessman, and my pocket paid for it. Starting Again as a Beginner When I moved into woodturning, I was starting from scratch again but with much bigger unknowns. In the beginning, I couldn’t even make my early products properly. I was a complete novice. Wha...

There’s a quiet shift happening. More and more adults are coming back to LEGO. Not just for nostalgia. Not just to “relive childhood.” But because building something physical in a digital world feels different. Slower. More deliberate. More satisfying. But once you step into adult LEGO collecting, you quickly realise something else is happening too: There’s hype. There are resale charts. There are “investment strategies.” There are retirement rumours. There are YouTube thumbnails screaming about 300% returns. So what’s the reality? As an adult builder and collector, here’s how I see it. The picture shows my newest UCS model, The Venator with some other models. I have linked to my build post below if you are curious. Why Adults Are Returning to LEGO For many of us, LEGO never really left. It just went into storage. Then one day you see a large display set — maybe a UCS model, maybe a detailed modular building — and something clicks. This isn’t a toy anymore. It’s design. ...

Every year on March 17th, Ireland celebrates St Patrick’s Day. It has become something quite remarkable. Cities across the world turn green, Irish flags appear in places you wouldn’t expect, and people with only the faintest connection to Ireland suddenly feel a little bit Irish for the day. In many ways it’s something special. Very few countries have a national day that the entire world seems happy to celebrate with them.

Introduction – A Changing Country Ireland has changed an awful lot in a very short space of time. Anyone who grew up here in the 1980s or 1990s can see it clearly. The country feels different, the towns feel different, and in many ways the sense of national identity that once felt obvious has become harder to define. That doesn’t necessarily mean change is always bad. Countries evolve, societies move forward and new people arrive with new ideas and experiences. Ireland itself has a long history of people leaving and settling in other parts of the world, building lives far from the island where they were born. Many, never to return again.  In fact, that global Irish identity is something I reflected on recently in my post  Did St Patrick Change Ireland Forever? , where I looked at how Ireland’s past helped shape the sense of Irishness that still echoes around the world each St Patrick’s Day.

Ireland — and County Kerry in particular — is one of the most beautiful places in the world when the sun shines. But thanks to our spot on the edge of Europe, right out in the wild Atlantic, we also get more than our fair share of rain and famously unpredictable weather. If you happen to be visiting in August, you might enjoy my post Puck Fair in Killorglin – Ireland’s Oldest Festival , which gives a look at what makes this famous Kerry event so special (even when it rains!). We’d love nothing more than to guarantee you perfect blue skies to match the stunning scenery — but that’s not something even the Irish can promise. As the Irish comedian Pat Shortt once joked: “ It would be a lovely little country if you could only roof it. ” The good news is that rainy days don’t have to ruin your plans. Kerry is packed with great indoor activities, hidden gems, and local experiences that make the most of a drizzly day. Whether you're looking for things to do in Tralee when it rains, ...

When people talk about Covid’s impact on small businesses, it’s usually reduced to statistics, closures, and government supports. Percentages. Graphs. Headlines. But behind every “small business affected” story was a person trying to hold something together while the ground shifted beneath them. Mine was one of them. For a long time, I wanted to write about the real impact Covid had on my business. Until I created David Condon Finds, I didn’t really have the right outlet for a post like this. My main website focuses on woodturning and products. This story is different. It’s about survival. Before Covid – The Build Years My business didn’t exist before July 2015. For about a year prior, I was returning to woodcraft after working in other industries for 5 years. To say I was rusty was an understatement. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed returning to my roots and often found myself still working after normal business hours ended. I did not watch the clock anymore like I did when I worked for a ...